Gospel test for 30 June 2019

Luke 9:51-62        When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Reflection       Two thousand years ago and today the cost of discipleship means putting Jesus  front and center of our lives, truly living in imitation of Jesus. This is down right daunting. No wonder we construe endless lists of things to do, distractions, diversions, anything but discipleship. This is why we say to Jesus, “Not right now. First I must say “farewell to those at home… bury my dead relative.”  Discipleship is costly. 

Several weeks ago I told  the story of taking my grandson Alec to the Federal Court trial of Dr. Scott Warren. Warren is a member of the nonprofit group No More Deaths that provides water, food and shelter intending to prevent migrants who are crossing Arizona’s  Sonoran desert from dying. In January of 2018 Warren was arrested for offering water, food and shelter to two unauthorized migrants.

Warren was arrested for doing what he says his “conscience demands of him,” providing humanitarian aid to people who are suffering. In so doing Warren faces three felony charges that could land him in prison for up to twenty years. Faith leaders, atheists and agnostics gathered, a chorus of voices calling this situation, “Compassion on Trial.” On June 11th a hung jury failed to convict him. A hearing on July 2nd will determine whether or not Warren’s case will continue in Federal court.  The questions eleven year old Alec raised with me continue to be relevant, “Can we be punished for helping someone? Can we go to prison for doing what we believe is right?” The disconcerting answer is, “Yes. Discipleship is costly.”

Jesus’ message that the kingdom of God is greater than the political empire is not well received, not in his time, not now. The demoralizing aftermath of Jesus’ ministry to the sick, the scorned, the suffering is not resounding affirmation that compassion is a high order humanitarian value. Quite the contrary. Jesus is charged with treason, his compassion is criminalized and he is brutally murdered as a common criminal. 

This establishes a precedent for condemning compassion. But here is the thing. Criminalizing Jesus backfires on the Romans.  Instead of being a quickly forgotten criminal, for the next two thousand years Jesus’ status is  elevated to that of martyr, son of God. His message that the kingdom of God is here, now, with and for all people has taken root in the evolution of human consciousness, raising us human beings up from creaturely brutality to claim our divinely inspired humanity. 

We, the self proclaimed followers of Jesus, are not meant to “command fire to come down from heaven and consume…” people who do not think, feel, look like or act as we wish that they would. We are meant to put Jesus at the center of our lives. We are meant to live in imitation of Jesus which means, proclaiming with our words and actions that the kingdom of God is here, now, with and for all people.  We are meant to be defenders of God’s care and compassion for everyone, even when it means coming out of hiding, putting aside our endless ‘to do’ lists, standing up for what we believe is right and “facing the time of trial.”

The cost of discipleship is great but the cost of failing to act on our values is even greater.  If we allow compassion to be criminalized  we will destroy ourselves from the inside out. The kingdom of God is right here, right now and it depends on us to deliver God’s care and compassion to everyone. 

Click on user right corner box for a 13 minute guided Loving Kindness Meditation - a practice to help cultivate compassion.

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Luke 9:51-62        When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Reflection        The Way of following Jesus to Jerusalem, the City of Peace, is opposite humanity’s impulsive inclination to react, get exercised, blame and exact revenge. The Way of Jesus is unswerving determination to proclaim the Kingdom of God’s peace for all in the face of human weakness, frustration, violence and tragedy. The Way of following Jesus to Jerusalem demands a peaceful response even, and perhaps especially, when we feel invaded, imperiled or insecure. I believe that is what the writer of Luke’s gospel means when he writes, “Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The idiom, ‘set your face’  means being determined to do something despite forces to the contrary.

Jesus has “set his face toward Jerusalem.” He is single- minded and determined. Nothing will distract him from fulfilling his purpose – from fulfilling God’s purpose to be the living breathing revelation of peace on earth, to reveal to people then and now exactly what peace looks like… and what it will cost. 

Which brings to mind that fateful day in October of 2006 in Nickel Mines, PA, when a man burst into a one room school house, shot eight Amish girls, killing five, then killed himself. Since then we have suffered many scenes of senseless violence. But the situation in Nickel Mines is singular because of the way the families responded. Rather than react with outrage and blame, claim social, political or religious persecution, and seek retaliation, the Amish families went to the killer’s burial service and offered forgiveness and hugs to the killer’s grieving family. 

Even though the family’s of the dead girls were brokenhearted, they choose to express forgiveness and peace rather than blame and retaliation and in so doing touched the hearts of people around the world, even then years later. This is the image of transforming  peace revealed in the midst of violence and tragedy. This is The Way to Jerusalem, the City of Peace.

Which lands us in front of a very large mirror asking, “How are we individually and collectively living the peaceful way of Jesus? What ideas or beliefs are we clinging to that stand in the way of being the revelation of peace right now? How does our desire for safety and security prevent us from being peace in the world? Are we willing to change even those things that are as fundamental to us as our comfort, personal boundaries and rights, public borders, family units and identities to  propagate peace and a place for all people? 

Are we willing to restructure our social, political and religious institutions to insure peace and a place for all people? Are we willing to redistribute wealth and resources to insure peace and a place for all people? Are we willing to pick up our crosses and meet hostility with gentleness? Violence with kindness? Hatred with love?  Are we willing to “set our face toward Jerusalem” and be peace, right now?  

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Gospel text for Sunday 30 June 2013

Luke 9:51-62        When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Reflection        Jesus seems so completely human in this text. I can almost hear him draw in a deep breath and sigh a faltering exhale as he sures himself up to do the next hard thing - return to Jerusalem. No doubt he feels that sick sense in his gut and gropping fingers on his throat. Soon we will hear him lament, “Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! (Luke 13,33-34)

Jesus knows where he is headed. No wonder he seems a bit irritable, not cutting his disciples much slack when he rebukes them, maybe even feeling a bit lonely and isolated when he compares himself negatively with foxes and birds. Jesus knows there is only one thing to do and it is not easy. “Proclaim the kingdom of God.” Let nothing be a distraction. Set your direction and don’t look back. 

This text encourages me because it gives me a clue that I am not the only one who struggles to “set my face to go to Jerusalem,” which is to say, to proclaim the kingdom of God in all that I say and all that I do. Even Jesus, who as far as I know never stopped praising the name of God, never turned away from his relationship in God, struggled. Even Jesus had to reach through the trenches of his own humanity, had to suffer the indignity (and discomfort) of having no place to rest his head or call his earthly home. Even Jesus had to stubbornly set his face to persevere, fix his gaze on the horizon and not look back. “Proclaiming the kingdom of God” in all that he said and all that he did cost Jesus everything. I believe he experienced it with every sense and every cell of his humanity. That is what encourages me.

When I hear Jesus say, “Follow me,” I get a sinking feeling in my gut and watery tightness in my throat and know that when I say, “Here I am Lord,” Jesus is with me in my aching humanity because he has been here.